Blame it on the convergence of accessible user-friendly technology -- and on the GOP's recent loss of political power -- but one would be hard-pressed to argue that in the last six months, the "netroots" has been as effective as the "rightroots".

You can tell "Rightroots" is a true Republican operation, because they've renamed the ABC PAC site they had a year ago (abcpac. com redirects to rightroots. com) and put out press releases claiming it's "new" so they can pretend it wasn't a colossal failure in '06.

As we kick off today's Personal Democracy Forum, in which political high-rollers from both sides of the aisle will gather in New York to discuss how new media has altered our political process, I'm compelled to revisit the topic of heightened opportunities for bipartisanship or even post-partisanship within the netroots and emerging rightroots.

As we learned in 2007, when the mainstream media was adamant that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee, if you take talking points with a grain of salt and start watching the grassroots activists operating in the netroots and emerging rightroots, you start to get a very different look at the future of political discourse in this country.